We had been told a lot about the Fiesta del Senor de Choquekillca. But as always it´s best to see things with your own eyes. And it has been a great experience. 4 days of dance, food and lots of drinks...
It started on Friday with drinkies and meeting Miguel´s dance group: Q´apac Negro. Their dance is about celebrating the freedom of the slaves. There are 15 different groups and they all have a different dance which they perform for about 4 days. On the first day they all danced at the Plaza. First they took the cross of Choquekillca in a procession to the church at the Plaza and for 4 nights the groups had to hold a wake in honour of the Senor. Every group has a certain time at night at which they dance in front of the church and serve food to the people watching.
On Saturday we went to Mass first (something we´ve not done in a while!) and afterwards there was another procession to the church. After lunch (almuerzo) we had a great party at our ´cargo´. A cargo is the place where every group is hosted over the four days. All their meals are cooked and served here and it houses over 80 crates of beer. Usually the groups asks a family if they can use their house to organise the fiesta. And the family probably gets paid for this. There are lots of tables at the cargo and a huge earth oven in which they prepare most of the meals. A band played the whole evening and lots of people came over to celebrate. And some of them even brougth more drinks. Because it was the first real night out we decided to go to bed early. You´ve gotta pace yourself, right?
On Sunday the Mass at 10:00 was so busy a lot of people couldn´t get in church. After lunch it was time to pay all the other groups a visit at their cargo. The funny thing about this is that every group is on its way to visit a cargo but will never be at their own cargo when a different group comes to visit. At these visits they perform their dance and then everyone gets a meal and drinks, usually beer. On the way to every cargo the group tries to bring other people to the next cargo by just taking them by their arms and dancing with them so they will follow. And since there are 14 other cargos to visit you can imagine we had a lot of drinks at the end of the day. Not too drunk but nicely pissed...
On Monday we had a late breakfast on the Plaza (boiled eggs and poteatoes in a spicy sauce) and were told that the rest of the party that day would be at a place outside of town. There´s a chapel (where a vision happened) and they take the cross with Choquekillca. They hold horse races where everyone gets the chance to win a chicken by trying to grab the dangling corn on a wire while riding a horse. The whole town goes to visit this sacred place so that the town of Ollantay was practically deserted, except for a few tourists and the shop owners. Also here all the dance groups share their food with all the invited people (tourists, friends). They first offer the dishes, aminly roasted guine pig and chicken, to Choquekillca after which they share them. All the groups perform their dances and afterwards there was a huge fireworks display in the evening and then they all take the cross in a procession back to town (about 2 hours walk, its not very far but they go reeeeaaaalllly slowly). When they arrive at the plaza they bring the cross back to the church and then the real party starts. There´s a stage with several bands playing and numerous crates of beers are lined up, waiting to be emptied. And there was lots of drinking... and some dirty meat on a stick.
It has been a very interesting experience. The Fiesta is a mixture of catholicism and old Inca traditions. Especially the way the group included us in every party and everywhere they went. Hospitality is something they treasure very well in Ollantaytambo. And it has been an eyeopener how they prepare food for more than 50 persons. What a mission! It´s also a rewarding fact when kids from my former school come to greet me. Mostly I couldn´t remember their names, but they hadn´t forgotten me! Cool!
Now it´s nearly time to fly back to Europe. Friday we take the night bus to Lima and then next week on Tuesday we fly to Madrid...
England here we come!
Adios amigos!
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